The 2025 Ginny Padgett Award in Creative Writing

First Prize
we are the best lie i’ve ever told
Isabella Ayers (Charleston Southern University BFA)

Second Prize
mississippi choir boy sings his last sunday
Eve Devera (Charleston Southern University BFA)

Third Prize
I think I hate Charleston—
Patrick Adkins (USC Aiken BFA)

Fiction

Rotten Clementines
Patrick Adkins

The Watchers
J.W. Gibeau

Sirens
Dylan Hopper

The Devil is in the Eggs
Kathleen Julian

Egg Salad
Jade Rivera Bowden

The Marsh Ghost
Lorien Lucero

Sweet Dreams and the Eater-Eater
Abby Short

Fireflies
Valerie Thompson

Nonfiction

As She Lay Dying
Joe Oestreich

Weeping in My Potato Salad
Amy Singleton

Seeing
Grace Stroup

Art & Photography

Tree with Moss – McLeod Plantation
Lawrence Bridges

Gone Gone
Abby Short

Tenebrous Histories in Citrine
María DeGuzmán

Photography
Roger Camp

Poetry

The Crabs
Aeon Bailey

The Calling and Response
Albert DeGenova

In South Carolina
Jo Angela Edwins

Shucked Calendar
Kylie Harris

Off-Season at Edisto
Ann Humphries

Great Blue
Deirdre Garr Johns

Heritage Variety
KL Johnston

Taste of Sun: Eriobotrya japonica
Jacquelyn Markham

Sullivan’s Island
Jennifer Davis Michael

La Jaliscience Taqueria
Glenn Miles

For Cliff
Olivia Dorsey Peacock

The Bitter Southerner: Now Available
Alexis Rhodes

Resilience
Sara Shea

Southern Suburban Slumber
Becca Spilka

There’s No Bull in Back Issues of Bon Appetit
Melissa Whiteford St. Clair

Chicken Dinner
Richard Allen Taylor

Charleston
Todd Tremble

give thanks for the gravy
Lucinda Trew

Call Me
Lisa Underwood

Charleston Miasma
Gus Varallo

Confection Day
Jennifer Weiss

Plein Air on Widgeon Pointe
Pell Williams